AGRICULTURAL BIOLOGY

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• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600200030-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 7
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2011
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: May 19, 1948
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL Iiti (ELLI
9tit' trvRNj~ti`ErQ~
COUNTRY USSR.
SUBJECT Agrieultizal Biology
PLACE
ACQUIRED USSR
DATE C?
I 1B 1947
REPORT
NO. OF PAGES 7
NO. OF ENCLS.
(UST * BELM
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION FOR THE RESEARCH
USE OF TRAINED INTELLIGENCE ANALYSTS
SQUT:CE Rusaian? pariodloal, drab o , no 4, 1947. (FDB For Abs 23T70 -- Trans-
letion specifically requested.)
EFFFGT (P f3MENE F1ERACBLMM, INS!".L?rYCID" ar spn 'Ib mpg,
0. B. Uedvedova, Candidate in Dtologtco1 Sciences
Iaigame referred to herein have not been reproduced but are aei1able
C the original document in the Library of Cangrevs. Ntsubero in naren-
tbeaes refar to the appended bibliography.
In 1%7, a new insecticide, benzene hexechlm-1d? (C4!hC1~.~; *sn5 ta~,etl
for wo- against wire worms at the oxpo' Anental base of the k32- ;h ion ,ccdM
of Agricultural Sciences 'men' F. t. Lenin at Gorki-Leninskije. Owin& to
`? +4 ac w tI hat : ha Proparntion n'uec co invroduced erectly into tho soil,
ti? gnestion cone as to ahethar?it would have a h=^Inful effect on sprouting
plants if it oamb into close contact with than. "pedal exper.iwonto to in-
weetigute the effect of beaseno hexaohloride on sprouting seeds in a caries
of field. cultures were carried out by A. A. Aaaknn.
Seeda mere subjected to its influence b o,ing dusted with inneoiicida
pow (wade ua of 7 10 percent bcauneae hexachlorida,in talc as a filler)
rsnd tnixbd with .t. In a majority of cultures the pAocoaseci seeds showed
sharply dltdred sprouts. T.te most typical feature acs a delay in grorth
ceq.ared with the control seeds and the formation of characteristic round .
tumor-shaped swellings on the rontc. The oxtornol appearance of the apaauta
re0elled the illustrations of seeds vbioh had boor processed with colchicine.
This 2-rmblanee of c, s - ;t ]] zixc.i`ve to thuac Lr a4ad wide col.thi-
olne made us decidw to subject them to microscopic eni lyaie.
Five cultures were included in We rr-search: two typom of soft wheat
(booperatoska sad scene), one type of hard wheat (Eolkhoznaya Tra2deya)t
Belaroys millet, and Trtusph leans. Except for the beano, they all showed
tnnora on the roots when treated with benzene hoxachloride. The bean roots
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'.i::oroecopic analysis rovnal 1 large c3:angca 11; ovety cuittTe cxaninea,
Rhen viewed through the -4
cr
..:;ere ua b jecte d ~a uialy n1a.: .
Only dax'feres 1rcn the aantsolj b r a s1i "c rutar'ai;3.~?, of E;rorrh; no t soya
pore fozmd; and in gcnoral they had a crral.:ir, f~as C Caranca unlike the
sd ct: turca,.
r eta of other Treatment of tz~atthe C jtologi cat t raatrrznl min car -c'led out using t ho nozuai
ni rotorstechnique. %ve+chin~to method =o toed for fusing, and flct,tonte,
t; gentian violet. T;ao a:crot. ;ia coctions were mada thin. (no
th?rnor than 16 j-) in o.er to amid cutting the chrcasoaoaaaa into several
ptsstc; thin is psrticnlttrly importart fox- the very long ribb n-shaped
chromosomes of shoat. Th pri err root's -rh ah tare in diroct?, contact with
Iarticleo of in5ecticid-
>scope, all rao cheats and the millet aura
very similar; the boon root diffo:odr
he a ehraar~tic avotom owl-
~tl. destrsred, The fission at chromosomes occurred !.a its foam;rnao and
w...a.. ,, in Line equaTOlul plane and apbaxquent separation mere
also not *Fnerved. Cell fission was Dither absent or at least rc'lsrdod..
Tht separate and rsctsmil
unai
id
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.In a state of rest, the separato ahnorul nuclei of nulticornel cells
sometimes merge taec v. tro or three at a time. It is difficult to any
whether this phcnoronon, which in qui'e foreign to a normal wheat nerietom,
is cawed by the incompleterese of eopnrate nuclei or by the direct action
of a nucleus on a quiescent cell.
in any case it is an undoubted ohoracteristtic of the pathological
ecmpoeition of tissue and the reaction of a cell to abnurnal conditions.
Cytokinesis either does not occur, in thich case a cell remains multinu~lear
or polyploid, or it occurs in an abnormal manner. Since tco achromatic form
is diorupted, the fragmoplast is not formed, and the cell is split up in
various directions by as l partitions which east It into accord actions.
Each of these daughter cells contains a different number of chromosomes and
may be completely without a nucleus. It may be assumed that by these moans
cells are produc which contain a smaller number of chromoso:aea than is
normal.
Such in the effect of benzene hmtacbioridc on the morietem cells of
hard and soft Wheat. As in the action of colcbicine, the most noticeable
While the splitting processes of each chrdmosome were still in prow the.
cells were either paralysed or completely destroyed.
The reaction of millet to benzene hexechloride was basically similar
fey that of the three experimental wheat ohoots. Q'iieacent nuclei showed
an even greater contrast with the control because, normally. the quiescent
s~ononuoleolar, and such expe?imewei shoots give a variegated picture of
sells which differ in the comber of nuclei and :rsoleoli and in size and
form (Figure 3b). Figure 3 shows a normal somatic millet plate (a) and
the wetephases of experimental plants (c and d). Changes which mere char-
acteristle of wheat were repeated hare. However, instead of long, winding
chromosomes, there were Indefinitely large nsmbere of short, spiral, almost
round, abroa)ecmec located on different pls'.nes. The presence of bivalrurt
ehrcmoaomee in certain calls was also new. The eimilaritry with myotio
chromosomes was in this case complete; the ehron amou were not only ctur4.*
a and wlattenedbut alan f' eei nhgrecteriatic nnutie. figures (Figure 3d) .
!hwiy6s the tim that the ahromoncees in experimental shoots were
dividing into daughter chromeamos, the action of tnogicide on millet die
acmes wined joined by one undivided centrosiere and hung on it, forming
the cross-shaped figures typical of.myosis.
Thee, compared to wheat, millet is more sensitive to the action of
fungicide. There is still one uninterrupted process in it, namely, the
division of the centromere.
Qt all the experimental plaute, beans appeared to be the most setable.
The action of.benseno hexaetioride not only produced no tnmoro, no re-
tardation. of growth or injury to the Beads, b..t _-M^ he _ ^?~??*~in A1ms>-
hating effect which was manifested by a considerable increase in the amber
.,-u'.-.scent
of wytcees in the roots compared with those of the control. 'rho
cells of the experimental plants Isere mononuclear, or, more rarely, dray-
nuclear with renmded nue'ei of a normal form. In metaphases, whromoeomee
are placed acre or loss in one plane, so that in a majority of eases their
calculation is not difficult in spite of the fact that the increase in
their amber may be vary considerable. Figure 4 therefore gives much more
faetal rieroseopic views than Figures 1, 2, and 3 where the observed
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dispersion of chromosome is in fact far more complex than in the photograph
because it deals with the whole depth of the cell. Of all experimental
plants, the general contraction of chronosonm reaches its limit in the
cast of beano; chramosames are converted from elongated bacilli to spherical
shaped eorpusoles (Figure 4a and b). They very greatly according to the
number of their meristem cells; the range of variation is from the normal
number (n m 22) to a high degree of polyploidity in nhioh the number or
chromosomes are by no means always multiples of the basic number.
The been was the only plant, among those investigated in which two
processes of diagercion of chromosmiee to the poles ware not coompletsly
paralysed. Examples ofona;'hasea,ai dough in a email quantitd compared
with the enormous ? number of divided coils, were found in all investigated
plants. Alter the aprcarsnce of duonncloar cells, a further division formed
plm3tas which touched or intersected one another or joined themselvea into
one general plate. Another peculiarity about been metaphases was a par-
ticular dispersion of chromosomes in the form of a ring or ha]! ring as
if some unseen spherical body were being surrounded by chromosomes (Fig
ire 4d).
llamas (1) described how, when examining the action of colohicins on
wheat and onion shoots, be noticed the presence in,the cell of a eortetu
aoidophile central ease around which the caromoscmea were dispersed. The
possibility of the presence of a similar bow in boar calla treated with
bem sme hexachloride cannot be doecludode, but it mould only have been
possible to observe it visually by using corresponding colorations.
it tea be acid that in the case of the most stable culture, beans, the
processes of oytokiaeaia were basically affected. tie migration of chrome-
eiomes to the poles of a call was interrupted, and the function of chromo-
kiresio and polar progression of chromosomes were paralysed, w:th no
change in the process of their division. In the deed of millet, not o4ly
,we the cytokit_eeis and polar progression interrupted but also, in port,
the processes of chromosome division; two latter use meniiuated 'by a
retardation in the division of the cemitronere.
If it Is aoanmcd that the changes in roots described above also
occur at relate in their bocL'es, the raturul consequence of these changes
will be a different number of ehr,mosomes in separate cells, tissues,
organs, and whole plants.
Study of the nuclear arymolies connected with the action of colchicino
on at plant cell has been one of the favorite themes for cytological re-
search during the Fast IC' years. After the work of Blekeelee and Avery (2),
colchicino was for a long time conaidored as a specific materiel by which
ohangee leading to polyploidity could bo produced in a cell. Hanover,
when the praise of colchieine grey, the authors began research in which
they attempted to connect its action with the reculiarities of its chemical
composition and investigated new "po]gploidogenic" substances on the prin-
ciple of similar molecular stuc:ure.
Iii chemical composition, colahicine eloeely resembles the sex hormones
and carcinogen4c hydrocarbons which produce sharp changes in the processes
of cell fission. Hence it was presummei that the specii'io action of col-
chicine on a plant depended on its structure as a polyoyclic hydrocarbon (3).
Other compounds made up if a series of polycyclic hydrocarbons were also
examined and new, biologically active sukatancee were found with an action
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on ca cast 8113Jar L'O Ln011 Ot. COiCf Ctnr` t4J. done It was aPouaed that the
specific activity of colohicina and certain other new polyploidogenic sub-
stances is the result of the presence of amino groups in their mowecnle,
and dose riot depend on their polycyclic structure. Nov properatiann with
similar actions fsme prepared, whose chemical aimii.aarity to colchicine was
this time based not on their polycyclic str'aoture, but on the presence of
amino groups (5). Anrentia was applied, and also a eorie3 of aniline dyes
whose effect on a colt, eim33',aar to that oa'colchicine, had been studied by
Dustin and his colleagues in connection with questions of and al pathology
Still another group of substances, similar in their biologicatl action
to co:tohioito, is formed by the merc nyY compounds, which are used as mor-
dent dyes 2br seeds and insecticides. NIUT ? (10) reduces both Grlsraean-
ethyl mercury chloride and Coresan-ethyl mercury phosphate (11).
long before the discovery of colclticine (6). These research analysts were
the first to study nuclear poison and colchicino, about which Haves (1)
suites that it appesyed to be a substance which i-me no more specific for
prodursii>g egtokineeib than many arsenic compounds.
Alkaloids comprise an isolated group of pot,-ploidogenio sabsteneoo.
Both eolohicine veratrine substitutes (7) and apiole (8, 9) have been
studied and produced from them.
Thus, the anmher of eolcbioine competitors constantly increases, and
the, tnave been oupplemmen??od by eubstncas of a diverse origin and structure.
presence of beseene rings or ealao groups or other peculinritloa of its
moleoulen A nanber of oeopcunds which have neither a cyclic structure
nor amino groups were produced as mutltenccc possessing the qualities
required to interrupt cell fission and promote the formation of polypioid
cells. Among them are substances with a very a.sapla sLrurture etch as
chloral hydrate, ether, ethyl alcohol, etc.
colohteir monopoly. Loran (1A) studied in i ffsot ;an an onion roods
mesh: ails , t.O metals 3a: bn.a form of crimple comp*rn6.;; for the most
part nitrites. rkoh a7 -+rt. gay :a a in 10 - 16 eonoentratiene, from
lafttl to ineffective :tj uraex ear result. vas that all rubstances exa -
following rate:an lithi , boryllivm, crdt.'v, poteesiun, chrcunium, _rtsn,
cobalt; nickel, capper, crsemic, rubldlue,, yt+siun, pcUae'~.iua, eodnium,
barium, lanthemin., rtritfiy neodyrein, o^b1w~, 8u1d, met'suy, ba':Iium,
lead, biratu@h, and then i'sn.
In maze cos 5cet 3 't ~i~ n of activity of these new polyplctdogonio
molecular Weight In the 5th, 60, :nd 7th ss-'oupr of the periodic system
the limits are below 0.000,05 aheroas in the 2d and 3d many limits reach
0.05 - 0.2.
Cojnpm nitntte, ytfr'irua eel: rata, 1n,1-hnnun aitreto, go]d ehl,rlds. and lead
nitrate become active with uoreLm4rations of 0.000,0u5 ?- s~. L0b.05 molecular
freight. The limits of aetivUy ,ice generally lraared with ei internee in
All silts which feed plants have high 13mits. The tuners which
normally eeecmpeny ooichiciae mitosis when treatment by organic campounds
is used are not always observed in similar oases using inorganic sub tances,
but the various lnte:ruptionm and retardations of growth are normal.
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?'' r. :. :,:.
tace, ce, does not dermi on Choi c?.rr aca1 crotsert;3r, To clarify the
m?e},enaarn of their action; Ortes Wen Tzorlucec tL,, ?ipoid theory, ; ch is
basuci upon the r@letionship mii.it_vg bet:;e?ac the rc1yploidogenic activity
of a artse+.amce and i*c saluc?ilit icy l:ipoidc. The l; -renter or wraller ac-
tivity of a substance ap.,cared to cau crs r_ :,curly pFyeicel r;oP 1,
sc?r:flity, since P poci~~c cor-o atica_ va "Ound for solLhility in
ipoida and a negative corrolatioi i'oa ?r,_.uo_';Cy n crater..
All the active scbetaccco in 'ostir etcd b the various atrkhore produced
ainiler changes in r!art cells, p,l]mloie.--I sic ectivitiy mainly depends
on tho ponotrotion of the r:ubstanee inito t.,o rail and its diacsso].ation in
the necos.,ct," emni t-ration i* 4!23 ....
.F=,s~,'?... ^.:cs t.,:s.s dissolution had
taken place, cell reaction sots in, ir,dcpo.drrt of the ohemical nature of
the activtcting substance.
Everything that has been caid above is in sharp contradiction to the
accepted ideas on oolchicine or any other speciflo polyploid producer.
It rAkea one regard colehicine nitosis as the direct reaction of a coil
to the injection of poison, and as a protective mechanism ahieb can be
oa red, perhaps, with the un3verital. protrctiye !- oeoss of inflaxe ation
in an animal orgnnitnc.
1. Saves, L. J., "A Colcuioiaa Cbroaology,," Ji-- 4:ja YXXi, o 3, 115, 1940.
B_TBLI X RLF?.'IY
..luomasomes in .
rRaats," J. Hared, XXVIII, 393, 1937.
2. Dlakoplee, A. F. and Avery, A. G., +?tiothod of Inducing Doubling of
'
Shmk, Z., he Chemical Nsturo of Substances V ich Produce lbly--
ploidity in Plants," DAN, , 181, 1938.
4. Shm , A. and C3stov, D,, "Brariaconaphtheno and Brapmmaphthalene as
Subetencea Fhfch Izdtse Doubling of Chromosomos do toe and Wheat,"
Mi = 1, 3,-1939.
5. ?avora!dy, U. V., "h ,r Substencee Fhieh Induce Fol -pl.oidity," ,
vvt. 1 1 19
39
21 ? 25, 1537,
7. Aitttua, R. P., and Berger, C. A., "A New Folyploidity-induoing Agent,"
J. , 3XV, 129, 1944.
Gava an, P., and Ca-audan, [a., "The Action of Apio1@ on Caryolouiss
and Cq^re~daiear@aio in Certain Rancror;er.4e,R C. R. A. g :
Perri,, 209,
Casyr inseis any. Cytodiaor@aie," C.^Ft. A. S., Ibria,~2].0, 576, 1940.
10. Shvartt, P. A., "Anata -cytological Changes in the Seed Shoots of
Corn,, 4tvree Wasted with Mordant )yea," , XXVIII, 355, 1.940.
it, Sacs, J. F., "Rirtological and Cytological Studies of Ethyl Mercury
Toephato Poisoning In Co m Saccl ings," om, M11, !?o ',
95, 1937.
RESTRIC r1P'
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Zl &anlfm of C-Mitotic Actions"
,Irn, 391, 1943..
13. ""`1Oxt~ p oa anU: Levan- e
azd fat Solubility Some FLonoeyclic Ctpotmc~p,m Vitae, xm,
24? Lmns A., ?Cptological Reactions Induced by Inio
bjMW
156,, 72, 1943. rgimic Seat SolutiaM,ft
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